An Awakening in the East 247denly flush with money, Abd al-Aziz ibn Saud began using his new-
found wealth to build a life befitting a king. Soon Saudi Arabia was
awash in modern technology bought from the West. The elaborate
process of extracting oil from the desert required the presence of
hundreds of foreign nationals—mostly British and American—who
brought to Arabia an unfamiliar yet alluring culture of materialism. So
close was Abd al-Aziz to the British Empire that he was even knighted
by the Queen. In short, the king had been Westoxified and, as a result,
turned his back on the Wahhabi warriors—now dubbed the Ikhwan,
or “brothers” (not to be confused with the Muslim Brothers)—who
had helped place him in power.
In 1929, the Ikhwan, angered by the greed and corruption of
the Saudi court, launched a rebellion in the city of al-Salba. They
demanded that the king renounce his materialism and expel the for-
eign infidels from the holy land. In response, Abd al-Aziz sent an army
to al-Salba and massacred the Ikhwan.
However, Saudi Arabia quickly discovered what the rest of the
world would soon learn. Fundamentalism, in all religious traditions, is
impervious to suppression. The more one tries to squelch it, the
stronger it becomes. Counter it with cruelty, and it gains adherents.
Kill its leaders, and they become martyrs. Respond with despotism,
and it becomes the sole voice of opposition. Try to control it, and it
will turn against you. Try to appease it, and it will take control.
In 1991, during the Persian Gulf War to expel Saddam Hussein’s
Iraqi army from Kuwait, a small group of Saudi dissidents calling
themselves al-Qaeda took up the original revolutionary ideology of
Wahhabism and turned against the Saudi royal family, whom they
considered to be a corrupt bunch of gluttonous degenerates who had
sold the interests of the Muslim community to foreign powers. In true
Kharijite fashion, al-Qaeda divided the Muslim world into “the Peo-
ple of Heaven” (themselves) and “the People of Hell” (everyone else).
The sinful actions of the Saudi princes have, in al-Qaeda’s view,
made them members of the latter group—apostates who must be pun-
ished by excommunication from the holy community of God. And it is
not just the Saudi royal family that al-Qaeda has targeted. All Muslims
whose interpretation of scripture and observance of the Shariah do